Social and Annual Meeting - May 15

Our Annual Meeting is set for May 15th immediately following our 5:00 pm Sunday Mass. This will be a community social and our annual business meeting. (In-person and on Zoom.)

If you cannot attend virtually or in-person, you can assign a PROXY. Just print and complete this form and have a Mary of Magdala member present it at the meeting sign-in table. This will allow your proxy to vote for new leadership council members and ratify the budget.

Please be sure to review the Leadership Council nominee's messages via this Link.

Register now for the 4th Annual

Heroes for Homeless

event on Friday, April 29, 2022 from 6-9 pm.

We have a fun evening planned at The New Belgium Porch in Canvas Stadium with dinner, live music, an online silent auction and special awards ceremony.

All proceeds will benefit the daily provision of services for families experiencing homelessness at Family Housing Network.

'HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!' 

Register Here

for the 4th Annual Heroes for Homeless Event

How Does Our Garden Grow? With Gardeners! - Meeting tonight at 6:30pm

If you have an interest in gardening and love fresh veggies, maybe you would enjoy helping at the 301 Faith Partners 2022 garden at our beautiful location by Spring Creek.

This garden was created in 2012 and has been producing every year except for a COVID pause in 2020. We do have a great group of volunteers who make this happen, but could always use some more help.

So, please join us for an on-garden meeting Tuesday, April 26th at 6:30 p.m. to learn about our upcoming season. Questions? Contact Pam or Wally Jacobson at wjacobson5@comcast.net or call (970) 223-2276. Thanks!

Please send prayer requests to marymagdalafc@gmail.com. Prayers will be listed for one month unless requested for longer. Prayers for the repose of souls will be listed for six months unless requested for a longer time.

Recording - 2nd Sunday in Easter, April 24, 2022

Here is the video recording of the readings and the homily by our Co-Pastor, Rev. Jane Reina. The  Sunday Worship Aid is available for you to print or view to assist with prayer.

#BLACKLIVESMATTER Reflection

The Tragic Death of Aboriginal Australian, David Dungay

It’s December 29, 2015 in Sydney Australia’s Long Bay Prison. David Dungay is a 26 year old Aboriginal, serving time on various charges. He has a parole hearing scheduled in January. He’s had type 1 diabetes and asthma since his childhood and developed mental health challenges as a young adult. 

This morning, he’s eating biscuits and rice crackers. He refuses to comply with a guard’s order to stop eating the biscuits so the guard notifies the Immediate Action Team which forcibly handcuffs David behind his back, moves him to another cell, and lays him face-down. Six guards restrain him - two kneeling on his back. His heart races and in a panic, he screams “I can’t breathe” – an ominous foreboding of the same utterance by George Floyd 4 ½ years later and half the world away. A guard replies, “You’re talking, you can breathe”. They pull down his pants and call on a nurse to administer a quick-acting sedative, midazolam. The nurse fails to check his vitals before or after administering the drug. 12 times, David vainly and desperately cries “I can’t breathe”. After 7 ½ minutes of restraint, his body goes limp. Staff from the mental health unit and paramedics try unsuccessfully to resuscitate him almost an hour. The official cause of death: cardiac arrhythmia.

His mother, Leetona, after viewing the body, reported that David’s face was almost unrecognizable - caved in and covered with bruises. She said his nose was broken and blood was coming from his eyes. Inquests were scheduled and delayed until 2018 and then delayed again. Professor Anthony Brown gave expert testimony that a person suffering from positional asphyxia can still talk and cry out, even while running out of blood oxygen. David’s prone position and restraint ‘were likely contributors’ to his death, together with other factors, including agitation and his struggle with the correctional officers. And yet, none of the officers were charged. Doctors testified that eating rice cakes and biscuits did not pose a diabetic medical emergency. David was not a threat. The officers’ actions were absolved with the excuse, “insufficient training”. The powerful know how to protect themselves.

Haunted by the similarities with George Floyd’s murder and emboldened by the subsequent world-wide Black Lives Matter protests, Leetona has opened a case, still pending, with the United Nations to review her son’s death. Today she continues to fight racist-motivated inhumane treatment of Australian Aboriginals.

Indigenous Australians are the most incarcerated group on earth. They represent only 3% of Australia’s population but 30% of the imprisoned population. Between 1991 and 2021, 489 Indigenous Australians died while in custody. None of the guards or authorities were ever convicted in relation to any of these deaths.

“I can’t breathe.” “O Mama, I can’t breathe.”

Past Recordings, Bulletins, and Announcements

For all bulletins, reflections, Sunday recordings during, visit our webpage. Please contact us with questions, concerns and ideas for better connection with and for the community - marymagdalafc@gmail.com. And feel free to call the office at 970 493-9536

Newsletters of Trinity Lutheran Church and the St. Paul's Episcopal  

What are our partners in ministry up to? Click here for the Trinity Lutheran Church monthly newsletter, "Tidings". And here is St Paul's weekly bulletin.